


GHOSTS

by rosemary22



Series: Klance Halloween 2018 [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ghost Hunters, Ghosts, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-21
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-08-05 12:38:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16367888
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosemary22/pseuds/rosemary22
Summary: "Keith loved his friends so much and if anyone ever doubted him he would use that night as proof. That stupid, pointless night he could use to rest, but wouldn’t."Work based on the prompt "ghosts" for the 2018 Klance Halloween.





	GHOSTS

**Author's Note:**

> this is what we call "migué" in ptbr lsafjfdçksfdlklsjad it's KINDA based on the "ghosts" i guess lsdçajfkfsdlksd i'm so sorry jfc

Keith loved his friends so much and if anyone ever doubted him he would use that night as proof. That stupid, pointless night he could use to rest, but wouldn’t.

When Pidge mentioned the idea the first time, Keith was hoping it wouldn’t be taken serious. But, of course, someone had to bring it up again. And then a third and a fourth time, until it was no longer an idea, but a plan. See, Keith wasn’t scared. He really wasn’t. He thought that was all very dumb: ghosts didn’t exist; therefore, ghost hunting was stupid. Period. But, of course, Lance had annoyed the  _ shit _ out of Keith with that nonsensical competition and Keith had gotten too riled up and given in. Because he always did when it came to Lance and he hated it. Pidge felt victorious; of course she did, the little shit.

Coran had managed to find them some ghost hunting equipment - obviously all inspired and taken from Buzzfeed Unsolved because the only two people who actually watched ghost hunting TV shows in the group were Pidge and Lance; the rest being too scared or too disinterested. Allura, Romelle and Adam had managed to jump out if the bandwagon, but Keith dragged Shiro down with him and Shiro. Matt just really wanted to go; he was truly Pidge’s brother.

“Okay, so everyone remembers the plan?” Shiro said, sighing. Keith couldn’t lie he was a little upset Shiro was actually actively helping the organisation. He was supposed to find all that infinitely stupid too. Everyone nodded.

“Question: can we chang-“ Lance started, but Hunk interrupted him.

“No, bud. We’ve gone through this already.” He put a hand over Lance’s shoulder and Lance crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Didn’t hurt to try.” Lance shrugged and Keith rolled his eyes. Shiro sighed again and nodded, proceeding to go over their plans for the night. They were going to stay the night at the Queen Mary; they had gathered money for over a month to do so. And in the final division of rooms, Keith and Lance had ended up together. And Keith knew why.

No matter how much their friends insisted that they had tried to pair up a braver and a... less brave individual in each room, Lance knew Pidge and Shiro had meddled to put them together. Because Pidge and Shiro knew about Keith’s crush. No matter how oblivious Lance was, Pidge and Shiro weren’t. Neither were the rest, but they were nice. Pidge and Shiro weren’t nice. They were evil. Devilish. And they relished in Keith’s pain. Keith had spent his money on that stupidity and he was being forced to share a room with his crush - whom, for some reason, was the most inconsistent human alive.

He knew Lance didn’t hate him. But they weren’t exactly friends either. They had been at some point, a few years back. When Shiro spent a year abroad and Keith had almost slipped back into his depression and isolation tendencies. Lance had been there for him; he had been there for Keith and they had become friends. And Keith had realised that no matter how much product Lance used, the corners of his eyes would wrinkle whenever he smiled too wide, how he had four types of laughter for everyone, but a fifth type that was reserved just for Hunk, Allura and Keith, how Lance’s shoulders, upper arms, lips and jaw would tense up whenever he was uncomfortable hearing something - usually that applied to himself. Keith noticed how Lance would absentmindedly interlock their fingers whenever they watched something together in the dark or how Lance’s slim fingers would run through Keith’s lower back or thighs and the sides of his body when they hugged or cuddled. 

But Shiro came back and Keith had nothing else to notice because there was no trace of Lance to be noticed. Lance had vanished for a week and when he had returned there was no trace of any friendship, just their good old made up rivalry. And Keith hated it. He hated that he had fallen for Lance and he had hated Lance for a grand total of six hours in which Shiro and Pidge - damned and blessed Shiro and Pidge - had had to try calming Keith down while he sobbed and talked about how much he loved Lance and how Lance was a dick to have just left. Six hours later, Keith still loved Lance, still had no idea why he was gone, but no longer hated Lance.

Now he was about to spend the night with Lance because his friends hated him. Nice. It was fine. Keith would survive. It was fine, he kept saying to himself. The whole way through Shiro’s speech; the whole way through their final adjustments; the whole way to the Queen Mary.

“You okay there, buddy?” Hunk asked Keith before they embarked the ship and Keith nodded. “Want a hug?” Keith sighed.

“Yeah...” He admitted under his breath and Hunk smiled wide, pulling Keith closer. Keith let himself relax in Hunk’s arms for a while, as Hunk held him just as tight as Keith needed to be held.

“You know he doesn’t mean things to come out as bad as they do, right?” Hunk said and Keith felt a lump in his throat. “Talk to him, Keith. It’s been almost a whole year.” Keith hummed. That was all he could do without becoming a sobbing mess. Hunk held him tighter for a second and then let Keith go. Keith nodded and started walking away to get his stuff from the car so they could all check in.

It was fine, Keith kept saying to himself through the check in and through the very very awkward walk with Lance to the room they were going to share. As soon as Keith opened the door he had the absolute confirmation that his friends hated him and didn’t deserve his friendship.

It was fine.

Keith entered the room.

It was fine.

He braced himself for the inevitable.

It was fine.

Keith put his stuff on the floor and closed his eyes for a split second.

It was fine.

There was a loud thump.

It wasn’t fine.

Keith could feel his breath get shallow.

It wasn’t fine at all.

“No.” Lance said, under his breath. Keith assumed he probably hadn’t meant to say anything out loud.

He wasn’t fine.

“It’s fine.” Keith said. “I’ll sleep on the floor.” He couldn’t face Lance.

“Cool.” Lance said.

Keith was never going to forgive Pidge and Shiro.

The door slammed shut and Keith turned around to face an empty room. His breathing failed him and he spiraled. Fuck.

***

Thankfully, Keith was excused from to most of the ghost hunting due to having had a panic attack. Keith never thought he would feel grateful for his fucked up brain, but, for once in his life he was. A bit. Slightly. So he excused himself at some point and got back to his room, where he had put some pillows and blankets on the floor next to the bed, put his pyjamas on, hit the lights off and lied down, cursing himself for having feelings for Lance. As if he wasn’t cursed enough already.

After some time, Keith woke up with a knock on the door. He stood up, confused, and opened it up. Lance was grabbing onto Shiro’s side like a koala to a tree; Keith sighed and got back to the room, sitting on the bed as he waited Lance to calm down and actually enter the room.

“Don’t say anything.” Lance said and glared at him. Keith would normally engage and fuel Lance’s fire, but not that night. That night he was exhausted. So he just rolled his eyes and as soon as the door was closed and Shiro couldn’t see them anymore, he climbed off the bed onto the floor and lied down, covering his head with one of his pillows and trying to go back to sleep. He couldn’t.

Lance was loud. Keith knew it, but being deprived of his sight by the pillow made him hear Lance even more. Lance’s steps were loud, Lance’s shaking and shivering were loud, Lance’s personal hygiene and night routine were loud, Lance’s undressing was particularly loud. Fuck. Keith tried thinking about anything else in the world, so he started thinking about how he was going to skin Shiro alive after all that was over. Lance got into the bed - and Keith knew this because Lance was  _ loud _ and Keith took the pillow from his face, groaning.

“Hit the lights.” He said and Lance made a high pitched noise. “Lance.” Keith insisted.

“No way.” He answered in a snarl. Keith rolled his eyes and sighed. He stood up, trying really hard not to get too worked up, turned the bedside lamp by Lance’s side on and hit the lights off, going back to his improvised floor-bed. “Keith...” Lance called him, barely audibly. Keith looked at him and raised one eyebrow. “Could you... come up?” Fuck. Keith had to remind himself to breathe and clenched his jaw for a second.

“Yeah...” He said, grabbed his stuff from the floor and put it on the bed, as far from Lance as possible, lying down and immediately closing his eyes. His heart was beating fast, too fast. Impossibly fast, even. Keith tried steadying it.

Now he  _ really _ couldn’t sleep anymore, no matter how hard he tried. Because he was so close to Lance and all he had to do to have what he’d been missing was reach out and… But he couldn’t. Lance didn’t want him to. Keith was sad and had had a panic attack, Lance was clearly scared shitless, the last thing they needed was Keith being reckless. Keith giving in to how his brain and body were screaming for closeness to Lance.

“Did you hear that?” Lance said, high pitched after the literal sound of nothing. Keith just groaned and shushed him. Lance whimpered. “Do you think they can do us harm?” Lance asked after some time, as Keith was already starting to doze off to sleep, and woke Keith up.

“I think I can do you harm if you don’t let me sleep.” Keith snapped at him, clenching his fists. He felt Lance moving on the bed. After some time Lance moved again and Keith frowned at how close they seemed to be; his heart felt like it was going to explode. One more time and Keith could feel Lance’s unsteady and shaky breath on his face. He had to take a while to recollect himself, facing the fact that Lance was probably very close to him. Lance’s face was probably very close to his. Lance’s lips- Keith stopped his thoughts and tried focusing on his own breathing and his own breathing only. After some time, when he decided his voice wasn’t going to fail him, he spoke up. “Stop staring at me.” He felt Lance shift next to him and the answer came a bit muffled.

“I’m not!” Lance said, clearly defensive. Keith switched sides and faced the other way before he did something stupid. Because he  _ really _ wanted to do something stupid. Being it either reaching out for Lance or punching him on the face. Lance managed to be insufferable regarding Keith in general, but scared Lance was even worse. After a long, long, long period of silence, when Keith was nearly asleep again, Lance spoke up once more. “You awake?”

“I am now.” Keith answered dryly and turned to face Lance, opening his eyes. “Lance I swear to-“ He stopped talking. Lance was impossibly close to Keith. How did that even happen? How did Keith not notice that happening? Shit, shit, shit. He wasn’t prepared for that. He really wasn’t. He tried not to move too much, not to do a lot, what if he scared Lance away? Lance was shaking slightly. “What?”

“How are you okay? Didn’t you have, like, a panic attack earlier or whatever?” Lance asked and Keith shrugged. “This is terrifying.”

“I didn’t have a panic attack because of the ghosts, Lance.” Keith sighed. He decided to test his luck. “What’s terrifying, though? The ghosts or sharing the bed?” Keith asked, smiling softly. He hated when Lance openly hated on him, but maybe that could diffuse some of the tension and Keith could use some tension diffusion at that moment. He really could. Before he did something dumb.

“Don’t make fun of me.” Lance said and frowned. Keith suspected he had tried to sound tough, but had only managed to pout a little. It was adorable. Keith shook his head, trying to tell Lance he wasn’t making fun of him. “I can’t sleep”

“I noticed.” Keith answered. Lance bit his lower lip. “You’re even being nice to me again. That’s how scared you are.” Lance pouted again and Keith sighed. “I’m not making fun of you, okay? It’s fine. It’s okay to be scared, I guess.” Lance hummed. “What?” Lance shook his head and Keith noticed he was retrieving his hand from where it was before. Keith knew Lance, he knew his body language, so, instinctively, he reached out for Lance’s hand and intertwined their fingers.

Lance looked shocked for a second, but smiled and pulled Keith closer, so Keith was hugging him from the side while he was facing up. Keith let one of his hands carefully touch Lance’s side and when he noticed Lance hadn’t tensed up, he started caressing his side. Lance seemed to be gradually relaxing and to stop shaking gradually. It was good, it was familiar. Keith was pretty sure he was going to hate himself, Lance and the universe in the morning, but he didn’t at that moment. On the contrary.

The fact that he was managing to make Lance less scared warmed his heart. Keith really loved it. It was all he wanted, all he had been wanting. Being close to Lance again, touching Lance again, cuddling with Lance again, helping Lance like Lance had helped him. 

“Thanks.” Lance said after some time, with his head buried in Keith’s hair. Keith hummed. Lance pulled him even closer. “I missed...” Lance paused and Keith hummed again, trying to encourage him to speak “I missed this.” He said. Keith swallowed hard and decided to take his chance. That was most definitely not the right time if someone was to analyse it, but what if Keith never got another chance to talk to Lance? To be like that with Lance? 

“I miss you.” Keith said, quietly. Lance kissed the top of his head and hummed. “You think you can manage sleeping now?” Lance chuckled and hummed again. “Night, Lance.”

They both fell silent for a very long time and as Keith was about to fall asleep Lance spoke up. “I miss you too, cariño.” Keith’s grip on him tightened and Lance kissed the top of his head again. Keith fell asleep to that low confession as if it was the most precious secret someone had ever told him. He knew that wasn’t enough. He knew he would actually have to talk to Lance, to understand why Lance vanished, to understand why things had gotten the way they had. He knew it. But now that he knew Lance missed him things were different. Now that he knew that, it could wait until they were home. Not on a room of an old and allegedly haunted ship.

Two hours of sleep later, they were woken up by Matt knocking loudly on their door ‘cause it was time to go home. On their way back, Lance and Keith both slept all tangled up together in the back of Shiro’s car. Keith knew he would never hear the end of it from everyone else, but if that meant being able to be like that with Lance again he couldn’t care less.

**Author's Note:**

> ok so this was ajkslçsjd it
> 
> tomorrow's prompt will be posted late, unfortunatelly, so imma be posting the days all wrong but çsdlafjlfjçsiojfds  
> cause i always get home after midnight dlçsafjlsdsjd so imma post, like, v not properly until the weeked i am SO sorry abt that
> 
>  
> 
> consider buying me a metaphorical coffee: ko-fi.com/playlandi <3


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